The Cycle of Life:
An History of Experimental Ecology

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Vladimir Vernadsky, Problems of Biogeochemistry, Part II, (edited G. Evelyn Hutchinson), 1944

Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945) and Winogradsky shared a similar background--both came from an agricultural region in southern Russia, attended St. Petersburg University in the 1870s-1880s, and grounded their scientific world view in Russian holism. Vernadsky--who had a much more gregarious and aggressive scientific style--developed numerous and extensive research programs, founded the science of biogeochemistry and developed the modern conception of the biosphere. One of the founders of ecosystem ecology (editor of this English translation) Yale University’s G. Evelyn Hutchinson, took great interest in Soviet biogeochemistry. A zoologist and limnologist by training, Hutchinson adopted and developed Vernadsky’s holistic vision and methods, eventually training the first generation of ecosystem ecologists.
 
 
Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, 1793
Charles Darwin, On the Formation of Vegetable Matter by Worms, 1881
Alexander von Humboldt, Cosmos, 1858
Dumas and Boussingault, Balance of Organic Matter, 1844
Ferdinand Cohn, Bacteria, The Smallest Living Beings, 1872
Louis Pasteur, Etudes sur la Biere, 1862
Selman Waksman, Sergei Winogradsky, 1953
Selman Waksman, Humus, 1939
Vladimir Vernadsky, Principles of Biogeochemistry, 1960
James Lovelock, An Homage to Gaia, 1985
 
Lloyd Ackert
Whitney Humanities Center
Yale University
53 Wall Street
P.O. Box 208298
New Haven, CT 06520-8298
Office: (203).432.3112

lloydackert@sbcglobal.net

The Sterling Memorial Exhibit is located in the Overflow Case to the left of the circulation desk. The Sterling Memorial Library is located at

120 High Street
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520
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